Absorbent articles of the kind that is worn inside ordinary underpants include absorbent napkins or pads for adult incontinence or feminine use.
The napkins or pads are generally provided with an absorbent core to receive and retain body liquids. In order for such absorbent articles to function efficiently, the absorbent core should quickly acquire body liquids into the structure from the point of application and subsequently distribute the body liquids within and throughout the absorbent core to provide maximum leakage containment. An acquisition/distribution layer in connection to the core and an opening of the core aids when subsequent insults are directed to the same local area as previous insults, as the local area tends to be already filled with liquid from the previous insult.
As these types of articles have to be sized and configured to fit in the limited space available in the crotch portion of the underwear, a particular problem is that they may leak at the side edges, before the full absorption capacity of the article has been utilized. The fluid will instead flow on the topsheet and out over the side edges of the article where it can leak out and soil the wearer's clothing. A further drawback when fluid flows on the outside of the topsheet is that a large portion of the body-contacting topsheet will be wet. This is of course highly undesirable as it makes the article unhygienic and unpleasant to wear.
Great efforts have been made in the past in order to overcome the side leakage problem in relation to napkins and pads for incontinence or feminine use.
WO 2009067059 A1 discloses an absorbent article comprising an absorbent core having fold indications and a forming element in order to obtain a desired shape of the article. Although prior art designs may alleviate the side leakage problem to some extent, there is still a great need for further improvements of the side leakage security for the kind of absorbent article that is worn in the crotch portion of an undergarment.